Comments

Man, I've been trying to get some ears on experience with this DAC/DAC+Memory Player, but, haven't had any luck. Almost picked up a pair purchased in October of 17 for $6995. Skip suggested I wait till I got ears on the Northstar stuff...I'm still thinking about running over him when I see him next.

I will say that after speaking with the owner his words were that they were nice, but, don't believe all the hype written about them. That's all he said and I got no info on associated equipment, though, looking at his other items offered for sale on US Audio Mart, he was running mice equipment.

I'm pretty sure that pair will end up in my system eventually. I like the FPGA approach to DAC's.

I recently just heard one of these. I was buying a Marantz SA8004 from someone and after auditioning that he switched over to the PSaudio gear. To my ears on his setup there wasn't a big noticeable improvement to be honest. Especially for the price difference between the two units. Now your gear may prove otherwise of course.

I've had a DirectStream for a couple of years, now. I don't have much to compare it with. Prior to this DAC, I had PS Audio PerfectWave MKI and MKII DACs, and before those I used a Cambridge Audio Azure 840C CD player, which I used as both CD player and DAC.

With that said, the DirectStream has produced far better sound quality to my taste than any of the others I've had in my systems. [I am still using the MKI and MKII DACs in my other systems, and they produce quite good SQ, albeit not as good as the DirectStream.]

The FPGA feature of the DirectStream is definitely a big plus in my opinion. Each upgrade that PS Audio has released, except the last one, has been a palpable upgrade in SQ. The last one, however, was so bright that my wife could not listen to it, and I mean she literally could not remain within earshot of the system with that version of the software in place.

This, by the way, is another advantage of the FPGA feature; it took me just a couple of minutes to restore the software to the previous version.

@DarqueKnight had a DirectStream for a few days or weeks, but found it not satisfactory for his needs.

@Moose68Bash that is the beauty of FPGA. I am not colorful with words of description but I will not got back to chip based DAC’s. Given, I have not experienced Emms or whatever it is called. No disrespect. I do have experience with Meitner, Dcs, Lamp and others. PS Audio is very respectable but I have always liked Chord better and Lamp best. But that is just me and my setup and the ones I have experienced. It is so much more than just bass depth. It is the layering, the width, depth, soundstage, of the music and presentation.

It is a sickness I no longer welcome. Just enjoy the time and music. Matter of fact I think I caught that bug again. Dang it. I should throw out my Apple HomePod.

I am getting the PSA Direct Stream with Memory player into my system. Someone is wanting to get rid of it so I will take it and see how it does. Resale should not be a problem I don't think based on the market pulse.

I bought one when they first came out. I was looking for a DAC that had DSD capability and that had equal or better sound quality to my Cary Audio CD 306 Pro Version SACD player/DAC.

The DS DAC was a big disappointment. The person who bought mine was thrilled with it. However, we had two different performance and experience perspectives: he was comparing the DS DAC to his former $1,800 DAC and I was comparing the DS DAC to an $8,000 SACD player/DAC.

There have been several firmware upgrades since the DS DAC's introduction and my experience is probably no longer relevant. I look forward to reading your review.

"So hot it burnsMice!"~DK
"Polk SDA-SRSs are hopelessly out of date both sonically and technologically... I see no value whatsoever in older SDA speakers."~Audio Asylum Member
"Knowledge, without understanding, is a path to failure."~DK
"Those who irrationally rail against something or someone that is no threat to them, actually desire (or desire to be like) the thing or person they are railing against."~DK

One of our club mates had the Bryston dac (I forget which one) then the DS, he then bought the Esoteric K03x which prompted him to sell the Bryston and the DS.

I asked him why did he sell the DS, he said the DS and the esoteric were pretty close but that he was tired of all the firmware updates.

He then demoed my Emm and we all thought the Emm really mopped the Esoteric (if you’ve ever been part of a club, you’ll know how difficult and rare it would be for all the members to come to a unanimous conclusion).

So now he’s buying an Emm.

I would like to see what the DS stack does against my full Emm stack. If anything, this will be a lesson for me.

If the DS stack is close, then I’m going to be happy as I get to pocket the money from the sale of my Emm stack.

@Moose68Bash that is the beauty of FPGA. I am not colorful with words of description but I will not got back to chip based DAC’s. Given, I have not experienced Emms or whatever it is called. No disrespect. I do have experience with Meitner, Dcs, Lamp and others. PS Audio is very respectable but I have always liked Chord better and Lamp best. But that is just me and my setup and the ones I have experienced. It is so much more than just bass depth. It is the layering, the width, depth, soundstage, of the music and presentation.

It is a sickness I no longer welcome. Just enjoy the time and music. Matter of fact I think I caught that bug again. Dang it. I should throw out my Apple HomePod.

Cheers

Just as an addition.

You mention FPGA.

Directstream is FPGA.

Emm is also FPGA plus discreet. Meaning all the upsampling and filtering happens at a software level while the actual conversion occurs within discrete dac architecture rather than an off the shelf dac chip.

DCS is the same way as Emm but with the Vivaldi having more robust FPGA section and processing power.

I've had a DirectStream for a couple of years, now. I don't have much to compare it with. Prior to this DAC, I had PS Audio PerfectWave MKI and MKII DACs, and before those I used a Cambridge Audio Azure 840C CD player, which I used as both CD player and DAC.

With that said, the DirectStream has produced far better sound quality to my taste than any of the others I've had in my systems. [I am still using the MKI and MKII DACs in my other systems, and they produce quite good SQ, albeit not as good as the DirectStream.]

The FPGA feature of the DirectStream is definitely a big plus in my opinion. Each upgrade that PS Audio has released, except the last one, has been a palpable upgrade in SQ. The last one, however, was so bright that my wife could not listen to it, and I mean she literally could not remain within earshot of the system with that version of the software in place.

This, by the way, is another advantage of the FPGA feature; it took me just a couple of minutes to restore the software to the previous version.

@DarqueKnight had a DirectStream for a few days or weeks, but found it not satisfactory for his needs.

Wow...pretty much the path I've taken...Cambridge 840C to PerfectWave MK II to DirectStream. The DirectStream is just so perfect sounding. No matter how loud you listen it is just so pure and non-fatiguing. I'd been lusting so much after one of these and thought it was just too far out of my comfort zone price-wise and then I was able to find one for well under $4K. We just moved into a new house and were spending so much on other stuff but when I saw this I decided to sell my PerfectWave and a couple guitars I loved to finance it. No regrets so far. However, if I remember correctly, the designer of the DirectStream used one of the Emm Labs designs as a reference. Don't they use an FPGA vs DAC chip design also?

I did, and I'm following. For some reason I've long been interested in this PS pair and I'm afraid that I'm just going to have to get one in house before I move on to anything else. I hate having tunnel vision, but, I can't run from the truth.

I'm trying to get my read on with the Emm. I had somewhat ruled out, or moved to the back burner, any DAC that wasn't FPGA, but, if the Emm incorporates that it becomes a player. Trying to figure out exactly how they use it.